I used to have no idea which foods were healthy and which weren't. Counting calories was the only thing I knew to be "true." A fluctuating weight and emotional eating were normal for me. I remember someone asking me, "Are you on a diet?" My response?..."Always!" Diet pills, meal skipping, diet shakes, food restrictions, and body shaming were all a way of life for me that I didn't even think about—it was all I knew.

My first memory of wanting to be healthy was when I was 8 years old. It was when I first remember becoming aware of "fat" and what "fat" was. In elementary school, a man (I think he was a doctor) came into our class and handed each kid a small squishy ball. He told us that when we squeeze this ball, we can feel what fat feels like. Ergo, if we had parts of our body that felt like that we were, indeed, "fat." In that moment I was no longer a little girl filled with unshakable confidence, no matter what I looked like. I was a girl who would forever more be worried about her weight and fat percentage. I now had new feelings of fear...of self-consciousness. I carried this with me through my teenage and young adult years.

Food as Medicine

I had no idea what a huge role nutrition played in our health and that real food was, indeed, medicine. I really wanted to be healthy, fit, and secure in myself. I always truly cared and didn't spend my days sitting around eating junk food all day. How could it be this hard? How could she be healthy, beautiful, and secure and I just can't get there? This consumed me. The obvious, yet completely unthinkable solution was that I was doing all the wrong things. This, in a time of insecurity, and all my hard work, was devastating.

I craved diet freedom, results that would actually stick for good and a healthy relationship with food. I love food! I wanted to be able to enjoy my meals and stop with the shaming, guilt, and anxiety food and meals can bring whether at home or out and about in a social situation. Once I discovered which foods were actually healthy and how to implement them into my daily meals the correct way, everything changed. Not only did I shed the extra pounds and keep them off even when I wasn't restricting myself, but I was no longer counting calories.

Food Empowerment

I discovered the right healthy lifestyle and way of eating for ME. It worked for me not only on a physical level but also developed into a way of life that inspired and empowered me daily. That's why I know that being told "what to eat" is really only half the battle. My clients are smart, beautiful, talented female entrepreneurs but that doesn't mean they don't have deeply unhealthy relationships with food and therefore themselves.

Society and the media are constantly telling us that our bodies are "wrong" from day one as a female. We're either too thin, too curvy, not curvy enough in the right places, and the list goes on and on and on. Furthermore, as young women in Westernized societies we're taught to believe, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." It's pressed into our brains that, diet pills, fad or crash diets, skipping meals, choosing to eat in a way that leaves us hungry and completely dissatisfied and losing weight for one specific season or party is completely and totally normal.

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Looking Within

That's why I had to take a deep, uninterrupted look at my relationship with food and with myself. I've been asked, "Did that take longer for you and will it take longer for me?" I guess so initially. But we can either spend our whole lives dieting, jumping from one crash diet to the other, giving the number on the scale all of our power, or we can solve the problem once and for all. The whole idea of the "healthy lifestyle that leaves you feeling inspired and empowered daily" at my coaching business became reality for me, and it can become reality for you, too. Once you've conquered this area of your life, imagine what doors it could open. How much more room in your head will you have for building and running your empire? My guess is a LOT.

Why? Because no one "diet" works for everyone. That concept is actually ridiculous. Fad diets are outdated. When you discover the right healthy lifestyle for YOU specifically and heal your relationship with food and yourself it will all feel natural to you. No more panicking about what to order at a restaurant or drowning yourself in self-loathing after a binge.

You'll be able to claim your freedom and confidence back, and your healthy lifestyle will become effortless.

I promise.

I'll leave you with this. I once read a quote that read something along the lines of, "What if you wake up and you're 75 years old and you never did all of the things you wanted to do. You never swam in the French Riviera because you were embarrassed by your thighs, never pursued your dreams in business because you never felt worthy, spent so many minutes of your life trying not to give in to that slice of pizza or bowl of ice cream—you'll regret it, you'll be kicking yourself that dieting and losing weight became your life's work."

Don't miss out on 95 percent of your life just to weigh 5 percent less. You're meant for so much more.